Kenyan president declares victory in mall siege

By JASON STRAZIUSO, DAVID RISING and TOM ODULA , Associated Press

Sep. 24, 201310:26 PM ET

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan authorities prepared for the gruesome task of recovering dozens more victims than initially feared after the country's president declared an end Tuesday to the four-day siege of a Nairobi mall by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. Officials said the death count could jump by another 60 or more.

Jerome Delay

Relatives of Johnny Mutinda Musango, 48, weep after identifying his body at the city morgue in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday Sept. 24 2013. Musango was one of the victims of the Westgate Mall hostage siege. Kenyan security forces were still combing the Mall on the fourth day of the siege by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo/ Jerome Delay)

Relatives of Johnny Mutinda Musango, 48, weep after identifying his body at the city morgue in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday Sept. 24 2013. Musango was one of the victims of the Westgate Mall hostage siege. Kenyan security forces were still combing the Mall on the fourth day of the siege by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo/ Jerome Delay)

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta appears in a televised address to the nation Tuesday Sept. 24, 2013, to declare Kenyan security forces have defeated a small group of terrorists after four days of fighting at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. In the televised address Kenyatta said the attack had left at least 240 casualties, including some 61 dead civilians and six of his security forces, with at least five terrorists killed and another 11 suspects taken into custody. Kenyatta declared three days of national mourning.(AP Photo / KTN TV) TV OUT - KENYA OUT

Armed police leave by vehicle at night from the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. The terrorists who took control of a Nairobi mall and held off Kenyan security forces for four days have been defeated after killing at least 67 civilians and government troops, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A Kenyan soldier runs through a corridor on an upper floor, shortly before an explosion was heard, at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Kenyan officials say three soldiers have died and eight others have been injured in a fight with militants who attacked an upscale mall in Nairobi. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Ann Gakii, left, reacts at the Nairobi City Mortuary after identifying the body of her father, who was killed in the mall attack, in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Islamic militants who staged a deadly attack on a Kenya mall said Tuesday hostages are still alive and fighters are “still holding their ground,” as Nairobi’s city morgue prepared for the arrival of a large number of bodies of people killed, an official said. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

Kenyan security forces are seen at the entrance of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday Sept. 24 2013. Gunfire has erupted sporadically on the fourth day of a hostage siege. Security forces have been attempting to rescue an unknown number of hostages inside the mall held by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo/ Jerome Delay)

A Kenya Defence Force soldier heavily armed as he carries an anti tank launcher on his back, as he takes a break to have snack at Oshwal Centre near the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Kenyan security forces battled al-Qaida-linked terrorists in an upscale mall for a fourth day. Another explosion and more gunfire could be heard coming from the mall in the early hours of Tuesday morning.(AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

A Kenyan security forces sniper aims at the Westgate Mall from an adjacent building in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday Sept. 24 2013. Gunfire has erupted sporadically on the fourth day of a hostage siege. Security forces have been attempting to rescue an unknown number of hostages inside the mall held by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo/ Jerome Delay)

Family members, react, outside the Nairobi City Mortuary in Nairobi mourn the death of loved ones killed in the Westgate attack in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Islamic militants who staged a deadly attack on a Kenya mall said Tuesday hostages are still alive and fighters are “still holding their ground,” as Nairobi’s city morgue prepared for the arrival of a large number of bodies of people killed, an official said. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

Kenya Defence Force soldiers move towards the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Kenyan security forces battled al-Qaida-linked terrorists in an upscale mall for a fourth day. Another explosion and more gunfire could be heard coming from the mall in the early hours of Tuesday morning.(AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

Relatives and friends of the people still reported missing in the Westgate attack, wait for information on loved-ones at Oshwal Centre near the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Kenyan security forces battled al-Qaida-linked terrorists in an upscale mall for a fourth day. Another explosion and more gunfire could be heard coming from the mall in the early hours of Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

A Kenyan security forces soldier walks towards the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday Sept. 24 2013. Gunfire has erupted sporadically on the fourth day of a hostage siege. Security forces have been attempting to rescue an unknown number of hostages inside the mall held by al-Qaida-linked terrorists (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

A TV journalist reports from Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday Sept. 24 2013, in front of a commercial advert from a popular supermarket in the Westgate Mall under siege. Kenyan security forces were still combing the Mall on the fourth day of the siege by al-Qaida-linked terrorists.(AP Photo/Riccardo Gangale)

Ramesh Vaya, right, lights the funeral pyre of his wife Malti, who was shot dead in the attack on the Westgate Mall, at her funeral at the Hindu Crematorium in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Ramesh and his brother both lost their wives in the attack. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta says security forces have finally defeated a small group of terrorists after four days of fighting at the Nairobi mall. (AP Photo/Kate Holt)

In this photo released by Kenya's Presidency, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, center, flanked by Deputy President William Ruto, left, and other senior Government and Security officials, makes a television address to the nation from State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. Kenyatta says security forces have finally defeated a small group of terrorists after four days of fighting at the Nairobi mall. (AP Photo/Kenya Presidency)

Relatives of Johnny Mutinda Musango, 48, weep after identifying his body at the city morgue in Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday Sept. 24 2013. Musango was one of the victims of the Westgate Mall hostage siege. Kenyan security forces were still combing the Mall on the fourth day of the siege by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo/ Jerome Delay)

Zipporah Mureithi, 34, centre, is helped by relatives as she weeps after identifying the body of her father Paul, 56, at the city morgue in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday Sept. 24 2013. Paul was one of the victims of the Westgate Mall hostage siege. Kenyan security forces are still combing the Mall on the fourth day of the siege by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo/ Jerome Delay)

Indian sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik, foreground left and his team pay tributes to the victims of the terror attack on a Kenya mall by creating a sand sculpture on the Bay of Bengal coast in Puri, Orissa state, India, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)

"We have ashamed and defeated our attackers," President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation that was delayed for hours as gunbattles persisted at the upscale Westgate mall. "Kenya has stared down evil and triumphed."

Despite Kenyatta's declaration, troops remained deployed at the vast complex, and security officials told The Associated Press attackers with weapons or booby traps might still be inside. A plan to remove bodies was aborted because of continued skirmishes inside the mall, where three floors had collapsed.

Describing the victims as "innocent, harmless civilians" of "various nationalities, races, ethnic, cultural, religious and other walks of life," a solemn-looking Kenyatta reported the known death toll: at least 61 civilians, along with six security forces and five al-Shabab militants.

About 175 people were injured, including 62 who remain hospitalized, he said, acknowledging that "several" bodies remained trapped in the rubble, including those of terrorists.

However, another government official said a far higher toll was feared and morgue workers were preparing to receive up to 60 more bodies. A Western embassy official said the number of additional dead could go as high as 100. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss information not publicly disclosed.

"They're just seeing dead bodies. They've found no survivors, no live hostages," said a Nairobi resident whose brother was taking part in the military sweep inside the mall. He spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because his brother was not authorized to publicly release the information.

Kenyatta said 11 suspects had been arrested; authorities previously announced that seven had been taken into custody at the airport and three elsewhere.

"These cowards will meet justice as will their accomplices and patrons, wherever they are," an emotional Kenyatta declared.

"We confronted this evil without flinching, contained our deep grief and pain, and conquered it," he said. "As a nation, our head is bloodied, but unbowed."

Kenyatta declared three days of national mourning starting Wednesday.

Kenyatta said forensic experts would examine the corpses of the assailants to determine their identities, softening earlier assertions by Kenya's foreign minister that Americans and a Briton were involved in the siege.

"Intelligence reports had suggested that a British woman and two or three American citizens may have been involved in the attack," the president said. "We cannot confirm the details at present but forensic experts are working to ascertain the nationalities of the terrorists."

Kenyan officials as early as Sunday evening began declaring near-victory over what they said were 10 to 15 attackers, some who wore black turbans and many with grenades strapped to their vests. But battles inside the shopping complex continued, straining the credibility of victory declarations.

Booming explosions on Monday collapsed a second-story parking garage down into a department store — blasts that lit cars on fire and sent dark plumes of smoke skyward for nearly two hours. Explosions continued throughout Tuesday, and the chatter of gunfire from inside the building could be heard. Fresh smoke rose from the building in the afternoon.

Fears persisted that some of the attackers could still be alive and loose inside the rubble of the mall, a vast complex that had shops for retailers like Bose, Nike and Adidas, as well as banks, restaurants and a casino.

Two Kenyan soldiers who had been inside the mall shortly before the president spoke said the operation was mostly over, but security forces were still combing the facility and had not definitively cleared all the rooms. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were under orders not to speak to the media.

Another higher-ranking security official involved in the investigations said it would take time to search the whole mall before declaring that the terrorist threat had been crushed. That official also insisted on anonymity.

Al-Shabab, whose name means "The Youth" in Arabic, first began threatening Kenya with a major terror attack in late 2011, after Kenya sent troops into Somalia following a spate of kidnappings of Westerners inside Kenya.

The group used Twitter throughout the four-day siege to say that Somalis have been suffering at the hands of Kenyan military operations in Kenya, and the mall attack was revenge.

"You could have avoided all this and lived your lives with relative safety," the group Tweeted Tuesday. "Remove your forces from our country and peace will come."

Al-Shabab, responding to a request from AP, denied that any women had attacked the mall."

"We have an adequate number of young men who fully committed and ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Allah and for the sake of their religion," said the al-Shabab press office in what is thought to be an authentic email address.

The militants specifically targeted non-Muslims, and at least 18 foreigners were among the dead, including six Britons, as well as citizens from France, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China. Five Americans were among the wounded.

The mall attack was the deadliest terrorist attack in Kenya since the 1998 al-Qaida truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, which killed more than 200 people.

Security officials in Nairobi always knew that Westgate, which was popular with foreign residents of the capital as well as tourists and wealthy Kenyans, was a likely target for terror attacks.

Matt Bryden, a former coordinator of the U.N.'s Somalia monitoring group, said it would have been impossible to adequately protect the complex without transforming its character from a pleasant shopping experience into a U.S. Embassy-like fortress.

"The issue now," he said, "is how this operation escaped detection. Was it so well-planned and operational security so tight that they managed to beat the system, or was it because there was a serious lapse of intelligence, or was it both?"

"To prevent future attacks the emphasis needs to be figuring it out and fix it, and not turning all shopping malls and restaurants and hotels into embassy-like fortresses."

A U.S. Embassy vehicle, identifiable by its numbered diplomatic license plate, arrived at the morgue on Tuesday. American officials have not confirmed the deaths of any U.S. citizens, but it appeared possible the morgue visit was by security officials with an agency like the FBI who were seeking information about one of the bodies inside.

Kenyatta said friendly nations offered various forms of assistance. American, British, French and perhaps most importantly Israeli advisers assisted the hostage-rescue mission, though security officials said all military actions were carried out by Kenyans.

Kenyatta singled out President Barack Obama, as well as the leaders of Israel and Britain, for their support.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan authorities prepared for the gruesome task of recovering dozens more victims than initially feared after the country's president declared an end Tuesday to the four-day siege of a Nairobi mall by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. Officials said the death count could jump by another 60 or more.